


Sigh Not So

by jemssims (morsly)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Coulson is probs Skye's dad, F/M, Fitz is an athlete?, High School AU, Jemma thinks boys are stupid, Much Ado About Nothing AU, Nothing Much to Do AU, Pretty light in the beginning, Rivalry, Scheming, Slow Burn, Takes place in the US, Trip is alive and everything is okay, everyone is a baby, friend goals, halloween parties!, other relationships included, soccer games!, then we get some angst, unrequited feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-14
Updated: 2015-10-14
Packaged: 2018-04-26 08:11:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4997269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morsly/pseuds/jemssims
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You'll never be in love, will you, Jemma?"</p><p>"Nope, not till a hot January."</p><p>-Skye and Jemma, probably</p><p>Much Ado About Nothing AU//High School AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sigh Not So

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love season 3 so far, but I also need something light and cute to help with all the amazing angst. What's lighter and cuter than a Shakespeare comedy set in an American high school? Not much. I hope you enjoy it :)

The brisk autumn wind played with the ends of her ponytail as Jemma stood at the end of the driveway, watching her best friend pull up in a bright red convertible with the top down. Of course. “Don’t you think it might be a little bit cold for this?” She spoke as she got into the passenger seat.

“Sorry, but when your dad lets you drive Lola, you drive Lola the way Lola is supposed to be driven: with the top down.” Skye turned around in the driveway.

“At least drive the speed limit, then, please.”

“Again, Lola isn’t meant for average speeds.” Skye looked over at her bundled up friend. “I did bring you a coffee, though.”

“Oh! Regular or fancy?” Jemma picked up the cup from the holder. Her name was misspelled as per usual.

“Fancy! You can have regular coffee at home.”

Jemma took a small sip. “Mmm, pumpkin spice. This is just what I need today.”

“Do you have the Curtis exam?”

“Yes, I totally have this unit down, but Fitz did better than me on the last one, so I really need a perfect score.”

Skye rolled her eyes. “Ugh, why is it always a competition with Fitz?”

“You know why! My lead is barely there, and I need it to get bigger if I’m going to stay number one.”

“You don’t need to be number one to get into Harvard.”

“Hah, you have no idea.”

“Fine, well one AP bio test is not going to determine who is valedictorian.” Skye glanced at her friend.

Jemma glared back. “It might! And I need to step up my game. Fitz has been resorting to some seriously unethical tactics.”

“Pet-sitting Curtis’s ferret is not unethical.”

“You never know what he’s doing while there. He could be looking up future exams and checking pop quiz schedules.”

“Fitz would never cheat like that.”

“He used to cheat at Battleship all the time. He would get up to ‘get a soda’, but really he was just looking at my board!”

“The way you two act now, I barely believe you were ever friends.”

“Yes, well, you can ask him why we’re not anymore.”

Skye rolled her eyes, hoping they could get off this topic. Talking about Fitz these days always left Jemma angry and Skye annoyed. The first year after their friend break-up, it hadn’t been too terrible for the people around them. The lone Brits mostly just ignored each other, secretly comparing grades and ranks, but once graduation and college applications started coming up, they were constantly at each other’s throats, whether they were around each other or not. And now that it was senior year, it was a full on war to see who would be top of their class.

“How’s the Yale application coming?” Being Jemma’s best friend, Skye understood that talking about college calmed her down instead of making her anxious like the rest of the normal human population.

“I finished it last night. Now all I have left is Cornell, Stanford, and Princeton. I should be done before Thanksgiving. How are your apps?”

“Um, I’d rather not talk about it.” The only application she’d finished had been for NYU, and she really didn’t want to go anywhere else. The decision would come out in a month, so she had her fingers crossed that she wouldn’t have to fill out any more applications.

“That’s fine, but you should be thinking about it some, Skye.” Her voice was stern, but she was much more focused on warming her hands on her cup and mentally quizzing herself on Mendelian genetics.

“Yes, oh college counselor of mine.”

Jemma sighed. “It’s your future. I don’t have to care, but I do. Because I love you.” She took a sip of her drink. “And the over-priced beverages you buy me.”

“I love you too. And I know, I’m amazing. The apps will get done, don’t worry.” Skye pulled into her favorite parking spot, and pressed the button to for the roof to extend over them.

“Oh, so now we get the cover,” Jemma said as she got out of the car.

“Hey, at least I gave you a ride. What senior doesn’t have a license?”

“A busy one, thank you very much.”

Skye grabbed her backpack and they started to make their way across the parking lot. They spotted Fitz getting out of his car, and, much to Jemma’s dismay, Skye dragged her over to say hi and walk with him. “Hey, nerd.”

“Hey, Skye.” He looked at the ground. “Simmons.”

Her reply was just as brisque. “Fitz.”

“I heard you guys got creamed by Carver this weekend.” Skye was a pro at diverting the tension.

“Yeah, well they seemed to be playing American football. It’s hard to actually score when you’re being tackled to the ground.”

“Hey, American football is real football.”

Jemma scoffed. “No, it’s not.”

Fitz looked up at her for a second, and she remembered why they became friends in the first place. Being the only two kids in the sixth grade with accents will really bring you together. That, and they were the smartest kids in school. So smart, that they were each other’s only friends until high school, until Skye took Jemma under her wing, another kid with an accent transferred in, and Fitz found out he was pretty good at football, compared to Americans.

“Anyways,” Fitz cleared his throat. “You better be coming to watch our real football match on Thursday. We’re planning on pulverizing Jackson.”

“Hah, we’ll see about that. I’ll be there.” She looked at her friend. “Jemma?”

She shrugged. “Bobbi said she’d buy me a slice of pizza if I go.”

“Great! It’ll be the whole gang.”

Jemma and Fitz both snorted at the same time.

“Not like our gang actually gets along or anything,” Skye said under her breath.

“I’ve got to head to bio. See you later, Skye.” Fitz left before anyone could say anything else.

Jemma rolled her eyes as they watched Fitz leave. “I also have to get to bio. I’ll see you in lit.”

“Good luck on your test! Don’t let him get to you, and don’t try to get to him.”

Jemma was already walking away when she turned and said “It’s just part of the game, Skye. And I’ve got to win.”

Jemma walked into the AP biology classroom to see Fitz at Mr. Curtis’s desk. The teacher was showing him ferret pictures. Classic. She took her seat and got out her testing materials. Everything had a place at her lab table. Unlike her rival, Jemma was impeccably organized. She had a different colored pen for everything and her bullet journal was inspirational. She simply didn’t understand how Fitz could stay so successfully on top of his school work with papers always falling out of his backpack, and having to ask to borrow a pen or pencil in every class.

Right on cue, he took his seat and asked his lab partner for a pencil. She’d expect nothing less, really. Curtis started handing out scantrons, and before she knew it, Jemma was on the last page of her test. Genetics just came easily to her. All biology did, actually. Coming out of her academic trance, she glanced over to see where Fitz was with his test. They were in the same place, of course. She looked to her left to see that her lab partner was a few pages behind. It was always like this. While finishing first had nothing to do with her grade, it sure as hell mattered in her never-ending competition with Fitz. She zeroed in on the bubbles in front of her as she felt Fitz glance at her paper as well. After she checked to make sure she’d answered all the questions, Fitz’s chair made the same terrible screeching noise hers did. Without looking at each other, they silently raced to the front of the classroom. Jemma won, handing her scantron to Curtis about 2 seconds before Fitz got there. And he considered himself an athlete. How tragic.

For the remainder of the period, Jemma took detailed and color-coded notes on the next bio textbook chapter, frequently getting distracted by the frantic way Fitz was flipping through his copy of the Iliad. They had a quiz next period. He liked to study last minute and still get perfect scores. It was infuriating. When the bell finally rang, she was first out the door, but he was right behind her. “I saw you looking at my paper. Getting that desperate, are we?”

Jemma rolled her eyes without looking at him. “Please, you were looking at mine first. Plus, you got number seven wrong.”

“I did not!” Fitz scoffed from behind her.

“Oh, right! I forgot you’re now the ferret whisperer, so you get to see the tests before we even take them!” She turned to glare at him. The calm she felt from being in a quiet classroom was very quickly evaporating.

“I’m not a cheater!”

“But you are a brownnoser.”

“Wow, said the pot!” He was getting angry quickly. “Did you not make Mr. Needham brownies last week?

“I had leftovers and he was my first period teacher!” Jemma could sense her filter going away. “I cannot believe we were ever friends.”

“I was delusional, obviously!”

“Okay, goodbye Fitz!” Jemma turned on her heel and sped down the hallway to her English class as fast as she could, but she still heard him mumble under his breath.

“Why do you always have to have the last freaking word?”

\--

Trip was sprawled out on her bedroom floor later that afternoon. Jemma was sitting beside him, quizzing him on European History. “You really don’t know the Magna Carta?”

“No, unlike you, I didn’t learn this in primary school.” He put on a general British accent for the last two words.

Jemma made a face. “Ugh, that accent was terrible.”

“Not as terrible as listening to your accent fighting with Fitz on the way to English today.”

Jemma hid her face behind the flashcards. “You heard that?”

Trip sat up. “The whole C building heard that.”

“Well, you can tell your friend that if he doesn’t accuse me of cheating, there won’t be a problem.”

“Didn’t you accuse him right back?”

She rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t matter.”

“He went on a date this past weekend.”

Jemma pictured a sixth grade Fitz with his Iron Man shirts on a date.  She scoffed. “Fitz? A date?”

“One of the Carver girls he met after the game really liked his accent.”

“Why is it that a British accent on a boy is hot, but on a girl it means she’s frigid and snobby.”

“Um, Jemma, you can sometimes be a little...” He stopped talking when he saw her glare. “You don’t even want to date, right?”

“High school relationships are stupid. We’re practically children.”  Also, people in high school relationships don't get into Ivy League schools, finish their degree in under 3 years, and become attending trauma surgeons by the time they're 26.  That just doesn't happen to people that waste their time in high school with puppy love.

“There you go. The date was a disaster, by the way.  She kept asking him to do James Bond impressions, and she definitely didn't find his physics jokes very funny.”

“That's probably because they're not.” She looked down at the flashcards.

“Jemma...” Her name was a warning.

“Oh, come on, you know he would say the same thing about me.”

“That doesn’t make it okay.  I swear, you two waste so much energy just hating on each other.” He took the flashcards from her. “Secularism?”

“Emphasis on the here and now, not on the spiritual and otherworldly.  Trust me, I never start it.”

“Hah, sure. You know Bobbi and Hunter got back together.”

“I know, I’m actually happy for them.”  The on-again, off-again couple looked like they had more than puppy love to Jemma.  Not to mention, Bobbi was extremely smart and driven and would never let a boy get in the way of her dreams.

“You’re happy for them? Miss “I think holding hands is disgusting” and “high school relationships are stupid” is happy for them?”

“I actually am, okay? They fight less when they’re together.” She grabbed a pillow from the bed and stretched out on the floor next to Trip. “And hand holding is disgusting.”

“You're happy for them... Do you have any data on whether or not hell just froze over?” She used the pillow to whack him on the head. “Ow!”

“You know what, you’re right Trip. I’m devastated. Devastated that I don’t have a prince charming in this god forsaken world to hold sweaty hands with.  How will I survive?” She put the back of her hand against her forehead. “Whatever shall I do?”

He sat up and rolled his eyes. “I can find you someone.”

“Hah, you’re a good guy, Trip.”

“Yeah?” He shrugged. “Maybe I could be your prince charming.”

“Pft, you’re also a funny guy.  Hilarious!” She glanced over at him. He was staring down at his hands. “Oh,” she sat up. “Oh, you were...”

He started laughing fakely. “No...”

“Good, good!  Because...” She nudged him with her elbow. “Good?”

“Yeah, I was totally kidding.” He flipped through the flashcards.

“Good, let’s keep studying.”

“Okay, John Knox?”

“A Calvinist leader in sixteenth century Scotland.”

\--

Before she fell asleep that night, Jemma caught herself thinking about the way Fitz looked hunched over finishing his test today. His sleeves were rolled up, brow furrowed, and left hand splayed on the lab table, seemingly to balance himself as he furiously bubbled in answers. She made herself get up to drink some water when she realized that her that her feelings about this image weren’t disgust or hatred, but something else entirely. But by the time her alarm went off the next morning, she had forgotten all about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Trip :( My goal for this fic is for it to have a very "Perks of Being a Wallflower", "Come On Eileen", "feel-good high school movie" feel. Please let me know how I do. I live for feedback. :)


End file.
